Q. When you were sub teaching all those years, what high school was that?

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1 PRE-TOURNAMENT INTERVIEW March 6, 2019 PAUL GOYDOS Q. When you were sub teaching all those years, what high school was that? PAUL GOYDOS: Just Long Beach Unified. I worked at a lot of middle schools and high schools. I think I worked at every single high school, Wilson, Millikan, Lakewood, Poly and Jordan. And then a lot of middle schools, too. Q. I know this tour has been -- back before this tour came along, if you got to a certain age, that was it, you ended up -- quit playing, got involved in some other parts of the golf industry. What do you think you would be doing at this age if this Tour wasn't here? PAUL GOYDOS: That's a good question. We're dealing in hypotheticals now, huh? I've had a few inquiries about doing television. I did a little bit with the Golf Channel. I probably would have given that a shot. I don't know if I would have been any good at it. I think when I hear people tell you, "You'd be good at that," I just -- you know, to me that's flattering, but it's also ever so slightly disrespectful of people. I did TV and it's hard, and there's a talent there that I don't know that I have. So I probably would have given it a shot, for sure. I had the opportunities. I don't know. To answer that back question, back to when I was 25, what would I be doing if I hadn't had a good putt break here or something good happen throughout your whole career. There's a lot of guys in my -- who have had my kind of career as a winner, too, and just kind of plugged along to where if something bad happens in 1994 and you doesn't keep your card, who knows where you end up. But we try not to think too much about that. Q. This tour has been, for you and for a lot of guys, it's been such a good thing in terms of the way you're playing, too, just the quality of game. PAUL GOYDOS: Well, golf allows you to -- you know, allows you to play longer. If you were to -- you know, Tiger's now, what, 43 years old and he's the biggest draw in golf without a doubt, and he will be at 44 and all the way to until he stops playing. When this tour started, I think there were some times when the leading money winner on the Champions Tour had won more money than the regular tour. Hale Irwin or Curtis Strange or somebody like that. At one time you had Nicklaus and Palmer and Trevino playing here and this was the bigger -- a bigger draw. I think that got people excited about, hey, we can follow our -- in a sense, you know, the people who are 23, started following golf in their 20s in the '60s got to follow their peers all the way for 30, 40 years and that's kind of, we've continued 1

2 that. The people who are now -- you know, you can keep following your in a sense, for lack of a word, heroes in our game for a lot longer period of time and it's turned out to be the fans like that. This tour is driven and all tours are driven by what the fans really think, does it draw sponsors and fans, and for some reason in golf they've been able to continue that, keep that going. I don't understand it fully, but it does happen. Q. (No microphone.) PAUL GOYDOS: It's nice to play at home, quite frankly. The first year we played here, we played in October. I actually played quite well. Since they moved it back to this time of year, hasn't been quite as successful. But it is nice, always nice to play at home. My family and friends get to come out and watch. They don't get to do that too much. In golf you have home games that are rare, you know. When I lived in Long Beach, I got to stay at home when I played the L.A. Open and that was it, and I got to stay at home for this event. So I've played, I don't know, Hogan Tour, I've played close to 700 tournaments, 650, and I think I've stayed in my own bed maybe 30 of them max. Not even that many, it's probably 20. So it's a rare treat. Q. Looking at the list of winners on this tour over 60, in the first 35 years there were 20, now there's like nine in the last five years. Is the window expanding or is it just the players? PAUL GOYDOS: I think part of that is just, you know, it's an individual thing. Bernhard Langer is a different sort of person that we haven't really seen before. But I think, you know, I remember -- I guess it's changed, but I remember when I first came out here, maybe when I was in my 40s they talked about your window was 50 to 55, I want to say. Now I've heard 57 and there's this precipitous drop. I think that knowledge has value, so guys are a little better prepared, you know, I think, to play longer, you know. Fifty-five is a young age to find out, what, something else to do. If you can do it until you're 63 or 4, all of a sudden you don't have to do that. Jay Haas has been playing well. Q. (No microphone.) PAUL GOYDOS: O'Meara just won, right. I again, I think that when you see a precipitous drop at a certain age, it probably isn't a guy who is in the Hall of Fame, it's probably more like a guy like me who had a good start to his career and at some age dropped off. You know, Mark O'Meara is a perfect example. I don't think he's played as well as he'd like 2

3 the last few years and he obviously said, hey, I've had enough of that, and he's played well really in all the events he's played in this year. Langer is a bit of a freak, he's just an incredible talent. The guy played in the last group at Augusta when he was 58 years old. That's nuts. But I do think that -- I don't know that the guys in -- who had the drop-off were as aware that that happens as the guys are today. That's really my point I'm trying to make, because I'm more aware of it and thinking about that and continue to do my work and be prepared to do the things. And I think that the first group of guys didn't know that that was coming for whatever reason at that age while we're more prepared for it, if that makes any sense. Q. But has it -- PAUL GOYDOS: That's a guess, by the way. Q. -- your view on how long you'll stay out here and play? PAUL GOYDOS: You know, no, yeah. My goal was to play in my 60s. I had some surgeries in my late 40s and didn't play for a while, and the thought process I need to be healthy when I'm 50 to play out here and that's the direction my career's going. My thought process, you know, if you can make it into your 60s and be competitive, that's a pretty good goal. Q. Bay Hill is this week. What do you remember about that Sunday? PAUL GOYDOS: I remember I played really well for some reason. I remember I don't think I made a bogey on the weekend. And that was pre -- you know, leaderboards were fewer and farther between. And at that event, if he still has them, they were handheld leaderboards, so the leader wasn't even necessarily on top of the leaderboard at that time. I think I was. But I remember there was a leaderboard behind the 14th green and the 11th tee kind of, and when I got to -- that was -- so I was going to have three holes without seeing a leaderboard and I think I had a one-shot lead on the 11th tee. I parred 11 and I parred -- I don't know. I birdied 14, I know that. I think I parred the other three holes and I had a three-shot lead and that's a different mindset. I think if I would have known -- I don't know that I would have birdied 14 knowing I had a two-shot lead, you know what I mean? I didn't know where I stood. You don't know how that's going to affect you. If there's a leaderboard behind 13 like there is today, you know, I don't know how my mindset would have changed. I thought I was -- I made three pars on birdie kind of holes. I parred -- 11's a par 5 and 13's a short par 4. I didn't think parring those holes was gaining ground. As it turned out, it was, so there's a mindset there. And then 15, when I finally had a three-shot lead, I hit the worst shot of the week on 15 tee, but 3

4 made a par and kind of got it in the house. You know, playing 18 with a two-shot lead was a big advantage, too. Maggert birdied 16 to get within two, but he birdied 18 and I two-putted, but he birdied it after I hit my 50-foot lag putt up there close. Q. All these years later you still remember all this? PAUL GOYDOS: Most of them. I remember on 16 I had about an eight-footer for birdie that I missed, and the commentator made a comment that I was the only person to miss it right of the hole, everybody else had missed it left of the hole. Everyone's missed it left and I actually missed it right, which is kind of odd. But I remember hitting it really well. No. 17 I hit a good shot and made a good par, and 18 I hit two good shots and it kind of ended the tournament when I did that. Q. When you were in those situations, what was your -- we talked about how the game changes mentally the last nine holes of a golf tournament. Now what's your mindset? PAUL GOYDOS: I remember I did a TV show with Annika Sorenstam, among other people, about shooting -- the guys who shot 59 and she shot 59 on the LPGA Tour, and listening to her talk and people talk about the zone, and she talked about how she could do whatever she wanted. I was kind of thinking, well, that's kind of crazy, but she also won 100 tournaments. And what the zone is, and people try to figure out what it is. And I think she had the best definition of it, is the zone is being 100 percent in the present. You know, what happens two seconds later, where the ball's going to go. I look back and when I've had some success on Sundays, I was very in focus on just that, the task at hand, and not concerned with what the outcome may be. I remember on -- I had to birdie 18 to shoot 59 and the pin was front left and the water never concerned me. The pin was five paces from the water and I can remember my concern, there's a little slope a little bit right of the flag, is that I need to hit this about six yards right of the flag with a 7-iron. I never even concerned myself with water. It didn't even cross my mind. That was an outcome that was a future event that I wasn't concerned. I need to do this. I think that's -- when you see guys doing very well on Sunday, they stay very much in the present. They're not trying to make -- you know, hit it -- talk about playing conservatively. I think -- I don't think that's what's helping. This is what I need to do. Now, you see it pretty clearly, but I need to hit this 5-iron at that tree behind the green, that's my target. And you aren't playing conservatively, you're just playing in the moment. That's 4

5 how it's happened, at least for me. Q. You were the fourth to shoot 59, now there are nine. What is that a function of? PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's a function of equipment. I think it's a function of -- the one thing that we don't talk about is agronomy, the condition of the golf courses. I would argue that the two biggest changes in the game are the golf ball and the lawn mower or agronomy that have really changed scoring in the game. Having perfecting -- maybe not perfecting, but really improving the two-piece golf ball. There was always a two-piece golf ball out there, but pros didn't play you because they couldn't control it until the Pro V1 to some extent, and that changed distance. And then the -- and accuracy. The ball doesn't spin as much with the driver but spins more with the wedges, blah, blah, blah. And then the lawn mower, agronomy has just changed the game. The greens are just ridiculously good and the fairways are ridiculously good, and controlling the golf ball is much easier. I think that has a big part of it. Q. What would be an example 20 years ago of (inaudible)? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, so you take what -- almost all the 59s, obviously I guarantee you they all have pretty good putting, putting days. So you have good fairways so it's easier to get the ball pin high. You know, you can control the spin a little bit better, and if you're obviously playing good, so things are going well. So now you go back to, you know, you have a 10-footer on 5 that hits a spike mark or hits a bump and doesn't go in, you shoot 60. but this doesn't happen anymore. I was in the second group off in the morning. I know one of the 59s was at La Quinta Country Club. Those greens are embarrassingly good. I hate to walk on those greens they're so good. I think Justin Thomas at Sony where the greens -- he was playing -- I think he played in the morning again, it wasn't an afternoon round. My situation, it had rained the day before and the golf course was very soft. There's things that happen. Q. (No microphone.) PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, Adam Hadwin, yeah. I look back at the round and the one that stands out, Duval's stands out. Shoot 59 to win by a shot. But also Stuart Appleby shot 59 to win by a shot I think Greenbrier a few months after me. Final round, that's pretty impressive. 5

6 Then I would say the third one is Al Geiburger playing a MacGregor Tourney golf ball with woods on a very hard golf course. I don't think he shot in the 60s that week. He won the tournament and I think he shot three rounds around par and shot 59 at Colonial in Memphis. I've played there in U.S. Open qualifying, that golf course is hard now with today's equipment. Q. I don't know how much -- as far as agronomy, I don't know what your level of insight into that is, but why do you think it's better? PAUL GOYDOS: Just science. I mean, there's -- I think it's Penn State has a pretty big agronomy -- I think the USGA spends a lot of money on not just strains of grass, but how to take care of it, what's the best soil composition, all these different things that scientists have done now. Now, if you go in and redo your golf course, which seems to be the thing now, the USGA has this is the best way to build a green to make it last in good shape, with sand composition and whatnot. There's a lot of science involved there. And I think fertilizers have gotten better, lawn mowers have gotten better, superintendents have gotten smarter. It's just like everything else, they've improved. Just like they've improved the golf ball, those guys have gotten a lot better, too. Again, has there been a 59 in Europe yet? Didn't we just have one, or a guy missed one? Came pretty close. You know, they have a different view of it. We have the Augustafication of golf where everything's got to be perfect. In Europe, it's more of a sporting event where, hey, the weather tends to have a lot more influence on the conditions of the golf course and there hasn't been any 59s over there. I think that part of that is that they don't have the same desire to spend the money it takes to put the golf courses in that kind of shape. Q. Do you -- when people talk about the golf courses becoming obsolete because of length, how much do you fear that or observe that? PAUL GOYDOS: Well, the PGA TOUR, the two golf courses that play the most difficult in relation to par are the two shortest golf courses, Hilton Head and Colonial. So I remember we -- Houston Open, we moved to -- where they're playing now, I think it's called Redstone. We played the private course the first year and then we moved over to the course they're playing now. The back nine was 4,000 yards long. A couple shot 22 under par, one tournament. 4,000 yards long. Front nine was -- it was 7,500 yards. I don't know that that's true. You know, back to the agronomy issue, our golf courses are much more manicured, they're much wetter. If you angle -- at Riviera -- and this is a rainy year, but if you go watch the L.A. Open, the hole that gives them fits is 10. It's not 12. No. 12, they have -- the stroke average is lower on 10 because it's drivable and guys are making birdies, but they don't know what to do there. So you create angles and firmness, you can 6

7 affect that. They keep talking about building tees and building tees, and I would say the argument is that we need to get golf courses to where -- force players to control distance more. If you angle greens -- the 12th at Augusta. I mean, if you had to play a par 3 and you had to make par for your life, I don't know that you would pick 12 at Augusta over a 220-yard par 3 with a big soft green, because it's angled. The angle makes you hit -- if it's 160 yards, you know, you've got to make a choice; 160 yards and hit it at the flag or hit 155 yards and play it a little bit left to right depending where the hole location is. You have to hit it that distance or you make 4 or 5. And we've taken some of that out of the game. If you miss your distance by 10 yards you've got a 30-footer. At Augusta, you miss it by 10 yards, you have a double bogey. So you can do things architecturally to cause the players to want to spin the ball more and control their distance more. We're not doing that right now. Q. (No microphone.) PAUL GOYDOS: That golf course is a torture chamber, too. That's a golf course that forces you to play in tough conditions and hit the ball the right distance, and they don't shoot low scores there. It's not a long golf course by any stretch of the imagination, at least Tour standards. But that's a weather -- that place is really tough. I mean, 17's a -- they're probably hitting 7 and 8 irons there. No. 15, they're hitting the same thing. Length is not the issue, but it does force you to hit the ball the right distance on the right line. Q. Obviously you're playing a lot (inaudible) but how much do you enjoy the power game and obviously (inaudible), but doesn't it seem like they can hit it almost anywhere and it doesn't seem to matter? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, but I think that's -- I think the one -- I have a theory, at least among the top players, and top players I say the top-20 in the world or whatever you pick, is that they're playing the game that the game asks them to play where driving accuracy isn't that important. If we were tomorrow to somehow change the game where driving accuracy was the most important statistic and hitting it pin high was the second most important statistic, in 10 years or five years or two years, the same guys would be in the top-20. They would figure out how to play that way and they would be the best at it. So I think the people are looking at that question from the wrong angle. I think the angle is these are the best players in the world, they're pretty smart at what they're doing and they're figuring out how to maximize under today's conditions. You guys in Orange County, they're playing a shift on (inaudible) for a reason, because it works. And so the same thing's happening in golf, is they're figuring out the best way to shoot the lowest score on this particular golf course. 7

8 Now, there are times when it doesn't work. Last week was probably one of those weeks where you had to adjust a little bit. U.S. Opens, you might have to adjust a little bit, though the fairways there have gotten wider. Q. Your driving accuracy on this tour and (inaudible), is that the reason you've been so successful? PAUL GOYDOS: I need to do those things, I need to drive the ball in the fairway and I need the ball pin high. Those are the things I need to do to be successful. I also am a believer that -- I'm a short hitter, I hit the ball shorter. Short hitters should try to work on really hitting the ball straighter. They should never try to hit the ball farther. And long hitters, in my opinion, should never try to hit the ball straighter. They should hit the ball farther because that's their strength. And when you have a long hitter trying to hit straighter or a short hitter trying to hit longer, they tend to screw themselves up and get into bad habits and whatnot. But again, the game's -- you have to play the game that's in front of you. You have to know your strengths and know what you're good at, and I like hitting the ball in the fairway. Do not -- even when there's no rough. I don't like hitting out of the rough when there's no rough. Like last week at Tucson, it was just dormant bermuda. You had as good a lie in the rough as you had in the fairway to some extent and I never hit -- I wasn't that comfortable. So my mindset is about hitting it in play and then hitting it pin high. That's not necessarily Phil Mickelson's mindset, nor should it be. Q. Has this tour made you a better putter? PAUL GOYDOS: No, not necessarily. I -- you know, but I think that -- I won five times pretty quickly out here when I really only had -- my first five chances really, and I did putt well -- I was situationally very good. I don't remember having that skill as well, but I think that's more of an experience issue. When I was 20, when I was 30 years old, I was a lousy putter on the back nine in contention, and I've gotten better at it just because I know myself a little bit better and I'm better at doing that. I think that's an experience issue more than I would say I'm better. I just know myself a little bit better. Q. Honda was brought up. Any thoughts on what Vijay did? PAUL GOYDOS: What did Vijay do? Q. Finished 6th. PAUL GOYDOS: Oh, yeah, he had a chance. Yeah, shows you how much we pay attention to the PGA TOUR. 8

9 I want to say he was in the last group on Sunday. I mean, again, a golf course that experience really matters. That's a golf course where I would expect somebody -- you know, if Langer would have played there, to probably play pretty well there because he knows how to manage himself around and stay patient and do the things that he needs to do. And if Vijay's playing well, which he obviously was playing well, he can be competitive anywhere. He hits the ball far enough and he does all the things. The guy's won, what, 40 tournaments and a hundred million dollars? I don't know we should be surprised he finished 6th. You can argue he's one of the 10 greatest players of all time. I mean, he wasn't won as many majors maybe as his numbers should indicate. Is he a better player than Lee Trevino? He won half as -- a third as -- or half as many tournaments and more majors, but Vijay's in the conversation. Q. Two wins after age 40? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah. So him playing well on the PGA Tour is not a big surprise. Q. Thoughts about the state of golf generally and playing -- play it forward and the nine-hole thing and the things golf is try to do to get people interested? What do you think about it? Are they losing the essence of the game in doing that or do you think -- PAUL GOYDOS: It's probably a good idea. I think this Top Golf where they have, I think it's like a Dave & Busters for golf of some sort. I haven't been to one yet. I think getting people -- I actually think in the long run it's a good idea. I think this concept of more executive golf courses or par-3 golf courses or whatnot, there's plenty of people who start playing golf and they don't like it and they stop. Well, this, it's almost like a transition. We start at the Top Golf and you work your way to a nine-hole course, a par 3, see if you like it and save a little bit of money on equipment. Hey, if you like this, I think this is something I can do and have time for, I think you can kind of graduate. This concept of having people just show up and their first round of golf's at Industry Hills, they're going to hate it and they're going to spend -- they're going to spend $150 to play and they're going to lose 40 balls and it's just going to be a nightmare. If you say, "This is where you should start, I think The PGA of America has some pretty good programs to get people started. I know colleges have some programs, too, that the PGA of America's involved in, even through some of the Ryder Cup money. I know Mark O'Meara with the Ryder Cup, they got to donate some money to a cause and they donated to Long Beach State and it's about getting more -- it's not necessarily about making the 9

10 college golf team better, but making the golf classes that you might take at Long Beach State better to get people to want to play the game. It's probably all good things. Driving ranges. You know, when we grew up, when I grew up, there was driving ranges everywhere. It wasn't just golf courses, it was driving ranges. You go out and hit balls, and there was one at Long Beach State. Those things are going away. Top Golf may start that back, too. Those are the things that really probably need to happen to help grow the game. Q. What's your take on the new rules, how they're being implemented, and the give and take with some players with the USGA? PAUL GOYDOS: Depends who you talk to. Nobody likes change. We used to drop the ball from behind our back, you know. So there's going to be changes and people don't like it, but 10 years from now, no one will say a word about any of it. I would say the caddies and the yardage books is a little bit odd. I don't know what they're trying to do there. Basically saying all the yardage books are obsolete, even if it's a blank yardage book. I don't carry a yardage book, my caddie does, but I don't really understand the impetus there. I guess there's a lot more of that green topographical mats on the PGA TOUR than there is on our Tour. I didn't really understand that. If they want to ban green books, ban green books, what do I care? I understand their process that reading a green's a skill and looking at a topographical map and doing a mathematical computation to know you have to play four inches of break seems a little bit odd, but just ban green books. But they don't want to do that, so they came out with this concept that's a little confusing. But in the long run, again, two years, five years, 10 years, no one's going to talk about it. It's a non-issue. Q. (Question about range finders.) PAUL GOYDOS: They actually did that, and the problem with range finders is they slow down play for us. They speed up play for everybody else, like the flagstick, but it slows down -- because what will happen with the lasers, you'll still keep your book, you'll still do yardage, and you'll double check. So they did it on, I want to say -- you'd have to ask, maybe one of you know. They did it on the Hogan Tour, the Web.com Tour, they allowed lasers for a few weeks and it slowed down play. Q. (Inaudible) got anywhere with the suggestion to single out individuals for slow play? 10

11 PAUL GOYDOS: They do a better job out here. I remember I saw something about, is it -- I don't know who -- Adam Scott talked about pace of play and stuff. Somebody brought up a suggestion, instead of fining them, you take away 25 FedEx points. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Out here, take away Schwab Cup points. I don't know how -- again, this is where I'm not a big fan of bifurcation of the rules. I think one of the great aspects of our sport is everybody kind of, your Sunday game, play the same rules as us, play the same course. But bifurcation of pace, I think this -- I don't -- you'd have to ask the rules officials whether I'm a fast player or a slow player. I don't know, I just kind of play. But this is how they make a living and I don't know -- you guys are writers and some guy's standing behind you saying you need to type faster. I don't know how that would improve your writing any. They are trying to make a living, and there obviously are going to be times when -- when it becomes a problem where guys are too slow. They talk about J.B. Holmes in L.A., and I didn't see it, but on Twitter -- I don't know if Twitter's a great spot to find out the right and wrong. But again, he is playing for $9 million and Ryder Cup points, and we -- we're so much more focused on golf now than there was -- Tiger Woods has changed the world and people are watching everything you do. I mean, you expecting that J.B. Holmes should play the same speed as you do at your member-guest at home is probably expecting too much. I think it's an overblown issue. You know if everybody on the PGA TOUR were to play faster, we'd play, what, 15 minutes faster or 20 minutes faster? It's half of a Seinfeld episode. What's the -- what are we -- if every tournament -- like this week we finish at 5:00 on Sunday. If every tournament finished exactly at 5:00, I don't think the rules officials would ever care about pace of play. It's when they have trouble figuring out how to do that, that's when we get in trouble. But -- and TV, TV talks -- they don't know -- if a player's slow, how do I get to that guy, when's the best time for me to cut to him? I don't want to watch him do his yardage book and dance around the ball. Those are the things that really cause problems more than anything else, I would think. But we're talking you're saving minutes, not years here. JACKIE SERVAIS: Thank you, Paul, for your time today. 11